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Last updated:
Dec.19.2003.
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Oct. 03. 2003.
Eight years after the Srebrenica genocide of more than 8,000 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), doubts have lingered about the degree to which the killings were coldly planned, or were improvised in chaos.
Most of those killed were unarmed prisoners, boys and men, shot in groups, or sometimes one by one.
Among the executioners, only a few foot soldiers have talked about the events that turned Srebrenica its name means the "place of silver" into a symbol of a modern European nightmare. No architect of the crime has ever explained in public what was in the killers' minds, or what made them believe that the murderous frenzy was acceptable to their own society and to their leaders.
But now, two senior Bosnian Serb officers, both crucial figures involved in organizing the bloodshed at Srebrenica, have spoken out at the war crimes tribunal here, describing the countdown to the massacre and depicting a well-planned and deliberate killing operation. They say it was largely coordinated by the military security and intelligence branch of the Bosnian Serb Army and militarized police, forces that were on Serbia's payroll.
The two, an intelligence chief and a brigade commander, recently pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity and have now given evidence against two fellow officers.
They provided so many names, firsthand accounts, documents and even a military log of the crucial days, that one court official blurted, "They've practically written the judgment."
One of the insiders referred to a directive he received, which said that "the life of the enemy has to be made unbearable." He also said it was his role to coordinate "the separation, detention and killings of the men."
This officer, Momir
Nikolic, a former intelligence chief, described with cool precision the steps he took in coordinating the logistics, moving between army and police units, avoiding phones and radios, as preparations for the mass executions were under way.
The second officer, a brigade commander, Dragan
Obrenovic, recounted how in the final hours, prisoners were moved to different detention and killing sites, in a deliberate move to avoid detection by the Red Cross and the United Nations mission, which were active in the area.
The officers' behind-the-scenes accounts from the Bosnian war represent sharp departures from persistent denials on the part of the Bosnian Serbs, including a recent Bosnian Serb government report maintaining that most of the men found in mass graves many with their hands tied behind their backs were killed in combat.
The first officer to speak out, Momir Nikolic, 48, the former chief of intelligence and security of the Bratunac Brigade, said the countdown to Srebrenica's capture began a year earlier, in June 1994.
In his directive to the Drina Corps former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic stated:
“A well planned and well conceived combat operation should create an unbearable safety situation, hopeless in terms of surviving for the citizens of Srebrenica and Zepa. The goal is to create conditions which are unbearable which give no sense of perspective for survival and living in Srebrenica and Zepa,” it said.
During eight days of testimony, he said his brigade commander sent out a directive detailing Bosnian Serb policy toward the Bosniaks in the enclave protected by United Nations peacekeepers.
"The life of the enemy has to be made unbearable and his temporary stay in the enclave made impossible so that they leave en masse as soon as possible, realizing they cannot survive there," said the directive, as it was quoted and read in court.
That policy was carried out, said Nikolic, speaking with the precision of a math teacher, which he once was. Civilians were fired at, aid was blocked and fuel, food and other supplies for the United Nations peacekeepers were halted so "they could not be ready for combat," he said.
The harassment went on for a year, until late May 1995, Nikolic said, and then the military began to prepare its final assault. Bosnian Serb troops, aided by militarized police officers and paramilitary fighters from Serbia, overran the enclave on July 11, 1995.
"They had been expecting Muslim [Bosniak] forces to put up fierce resistance," said Nikolic. "No one thought the resistance would be so short-lived."
Instead, he said, there was chaos, with thousands of civilians fleeing, many hoping for safety near a United Nations base at Potocari.
The next day, at an early morning meeting at the Bratunac Brigade headquarters,
Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic announced his plan to kill the prisoners, according to the testimony.
Momir Nikolic said he learned about it from two of his superiors coming out of the meeting. One of them, Col. Vujadin Popovic,
"told me that women and children had to be deported to Kladanj and the men had to
be separated and temporarily detained," Nikolic said.
"When I asked him what would happen then, he said that all 'balija' had to be killed," he said. Balija is a derogatory name for Bosniaks.
"I was told my task would be to coordinate the different forces."
Orders were to concentrate prisoners in Bratunac, a nearby town under Bosnian Serb control, Nikolic continued, and he and his two superiors talked about suitable places, including several schools, a sports complex and a hangar. Then the discussion turned to sites for executions, including a brick factory and a mine, he said.
Nikolic also described an encounter on July 13 at which General Mladic addressed several hundred Bosniaks who had surrendered in Konjevic Polje. The general told the Bosniaks not to worry, that transport would be organized for them, according to the testimony.
Later as General Mladic greeted him, Nikolic said, he asked what was to be done with the men. General Mladic, who has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal and is a fugitive, responded with a gesture, Nikolic said, and he repeated it in court, moving his hand from left to right, palm down, in a cutting motion.
The prosecutor, Peter McCloskey, asked, "What did you think would happen to the prisoners?"
Nikolic said: "I did not think. I knew."
That same day, orders came that the executions would take place, not in Bratunac, but near Zvornik, some 25 miles farther north.
Nikolic said he moved from place to place, informing regional commanders personally, avoiding telephones and radios.
His version was corroborated in court by the second insider witness, Dragan Obrenovic, at the time the acting commander of the Zvornik Brigade.
Dragan Obrenovic said his brigade's intelligence chief told him to prepare for some 3,000 prisoners in his area. Obrenovic said he asked why the prisoners were coming to Zvornik, instead of going to the
nazi-style concentration camp at Batkovici.The response, he told the court, was that orders were to evade the Red Cross and the United Nations peacekeepers.
"The order was to take the prisoners and execute them in Zvornik," Obrenovic said. When he questioned the order again, he was informed that it came from General Mladic, the head of the army.
The prosecutor asked why he cooperated. Obrenovic replied that once he understood the order was coming from the top. "I became afraid," he said. "I thought there was no point in standing up to it."
That same night of July 13, the small town of Bratunac was extremely tense, Nikolic said. About 3,500 to 4,500 prisoners were held in overcrowded schools, a warehouse and a gym, and piled in buses and trucks parked around town, as more were arriving.
Soldiers, police officers and armed local volunteers were mobilized to guard them. During the night, Nikolic said, 80 to 100 prisoners were taken off buses and from a hangar and shot.
In the early hours of July 14, Nikolic said, he watched a long column of buses and trucks pull out of Bratunac, heading for Zvornik. At the head of the column, as a decoy, was a white United Nations armored personnel carrier, one of the vehicles stolen from peacekeepers. On board were Bosnian Serb soldiers and police officers, Nikolic said.
In their testimony, the two officers said they were not present at the mass executions around Zvornik that began on July 14 and lasted four days, but that like most members of the forces in the area, they knew of them. Obrenovic said he understood when he was asked to send engineers to dig mass graves.
Nikolic said he became part of the cover-up that followed the killings. He said that later on, in September, he helped to oversee the operations to dig up uncounted bodies and rebury them at secret sites.
During lengthy cross-examination a defense lawyer for Col. Vidoje Blagojevic challenged Nikolic's credibility, reminding him of a lie.
He said that earlier this year, when negotiating a plea agreement with prosecutors, Nikolic confessed to his role in Srebrenica but also claimed a role in another massacre at which he was not present. Before the agreement was completed, he retracted that statement.
Nikolic provided an answer, in a show of emotion that is rather exceptional at a tribunal where perpetrators' toughness and denial are far more common.
At the time, he said, he accepted more guilt, fearing that the plea agreement might fall through. During his confessions, he said, he had lived through "a terrible" period he did not want to remember, let alone talk about. "Everything that happened in and around Srebrenica was always present in my mind," he said. "I did not want to go through that process again and face a trial."
Michael Karnavas, the defense lawyer, also asked why he ignored the army's rule to grant protection to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
Nikolic responded sharply: "Do you really think that in an operation where 7,000 people were killed that somebody was adhering to the Geneva Conventions? First of all, they were captured, then killed and then buried, exhumed once again, and buried again. Nobody, Mr. Karnavas, adhered to Geneva Conventions."
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